Weekly Art Project Week One

Brenda Gael Smith has been undertaking a Weekly Art Project for about 16 weeks and she has been encouraging others to join in.  I have decided to join and make a mini quilt each week.  I am planning 9in by 12 inches. In thinking about my first piece I took a photo last week and posted on Instagram (I post as #oceanbluetextiles7)of a very large paperbark tree at the end of my street.

I also put up on my design wall a quilt top that I made in a Nancy Crow Workshop in New Zealand a few years ago and the technique I used also inspired me.

So I went to look in my hand dye scrap pieces (smaller than a quarter yard) and found a green fabric I had dyed and patterned and I also found some rust fabric I had done.  I then worked on my piece with a minimal drawing to guide me.  I am trying to use my sketchbook more!  I used valdani 12 ply to hand quilt the piece. I decided to bind the mini quilt this time but may become adventurous in the future and follow Brenda's tutorial on attaching to an art piece to a canvas.  So here is my first Challenge Piece.

Now to get busy on next week's piece!

Rebecca

Block Printing Paper

I had fun making block printed wrapping paper for Christmas.  I followed the blog post of Laura Kemshall on DesignMatters TV.  I learnt that there is acrylic paint and acrylic paint  - a medium thickness paint seemed to work most easily.  I have done some block printing before but this was really enjoyable so I am planning to continue with this printing technique.  Here is an example of the paper I made.

cheers Rebecca

Penang and Singapore Inspiration

I have just returned from a wonderful trip to Penang Malaysia and Singapore.  I was particularly inspired by the colour, texture and shape of the beautiful tropical flowers.  I have been drawing in my sketchbook and hope to take this work further. Here is a sample of the flowers I saw:

cheers Rebecca

Brisbane Craft and Quilt Show

I went to the Brisbane Craft and Quilt Show during the week.  My quilt "African Mahogany" is part of the "Our Wishes for the World" Exhibition at the Show.  Our 13 quilts (there are 13 of us in the Group) were exhibited first in Taiwan.  They were in New Zealand last month and now Brisbane.

Work in Progress - Quilt

I am working on a new quilt using one single piece of fabric I dyed.  Inspired by the Linda and Laura Kemshall(Design Matters TV) I cut the fabric strips and then these into squares and finally into one and a half inch pieces. I matched up colours and made rail fence blocks this is the piece.  I love the colours - my favourites.

cheers Rebecca

Ironbark Arts Fabric Club

Ali George and I create Ironbark Arts fabric and our Spring Fabric Club has just been mailed out.  We included a lovely Cottage Garden Thread with the parcel.  If you would like to join the club either with an annual subscription or a quarterly subscription the details are on Ali's website.

cheers
Rebecca

Ironbark Arts Newsletter - September 2016

Ali George and I have a new name for our hand dyed and hand patterned fabric - Ironbark

Arts - which we see as a name reflective of the true collaboration between our two Studios Rebecca (Ocean Blue Textile Studio) and Ali (Aliquilts Studio).

We have produced a Newsletter with the first edition emailed recently.  We are currently working on our second edition.  We have included details of our Exhibition Work, Workshops and of course our great Fabric.  If you would like to receive a copy of the Newsletter please send me a message.

cheers Rebecca